The Story of Prague (1920)/Chapter 3

by František Lützow

CHAPTER III

 

Prague in Modern Times

 

AFTER the battle of the White Mountain, the interest of the story of Prague declines for a time. A period of strenuous reaction in Church and State, during which the Government endeavours to efface the memorials of past national glory, cannot be picturesque. As it was necessary to replace by new architectural monuments the ancient buildings that recalled events that it was now thought desirable to forget, Prague was in the seventeenth and eighteenth century covered with buildings in the rococo and ‘Jesuite’ styles, which often unfavourably impress the passing traveller who is unable to discern that they are by no means connected with the period of Bohemia’s greatness.

During the Thirty Years’ War Prague several times again plays a considerable part. After Gustavus Adolphus’s great victory at Breitenfeld in 1631, his Saxon allies occupied Prague in November of that year. They were accompanied by many Bohemian exiles, who caused the heads of the twelve patriots that were still exposed on the bridge towers to be removed and buried with great solemnity in the Tyn Church. Preparations were even made to re-establish Protestanism, but in May of the following year Wallenstein’s army stormed the Malá Strana and the Hradcany Castle, and the Saxons shortly afterwards entirely evacuated Bohemia, though not before amassing
THE OLD SYNAGOGUE a large amount of plunder. Many of the treasures of Rudolph’s collections in the Hradcany Castle thus found their way to Dresden.

In 1648 Prague was the scene of the last struggles of the war that had begun there thirty years before. A Swedish force, under General Königsmark, entered Bohemia in that year and advanced rapidly on Prague. Negotiations for peace had begun in the previous year, and it has been often wondered why this last Swedish incursion took place. Bohemian writers have surmised that the desire for plunder, and particularly the attraction of Rudolph’s far-famed collections, were partly the motive. The Swedes obtained possession of the part of Prague that lies on the left bank of the river through the treachery of Otowalsky, an Imperial officer who had been dismissed from the service. He informed the Swedes that the walls of the Malá Strana were under repair, and that there was therefore a temporary gap in them. In the night of July 26 the Swedish troops entered the town by this gap, opened the Strahov gate and seized the Malá Strana and the Hradcany. The Swedes were, however, unable to obtain possession of the part of the town on the right bank of the Vltava, even after a second Swedish-army had joined them in October. The citizens, now mostly Catholics, headed by Jesuit monks, bravely defended the bridge of Prague, and the Jewish colony, always a considerable one at Prague, also bravely took part in the defence.

On November 3, the news of the conclusion of the Treaty of Westphalia reached Prague and put a stop to hostilities. There is little to note of Prague in the following years; it was not the scene of warlike events, and the former municipal struggles ceased under a severely absolutist Government.

Prague is now an Austrian provincial town, though Bohemia has always officially been described as a kingdom, not as a province. It was only during the Austrian War of Succession (1741–1748) that the annals of Prague again became of some interest. The male line of the house of Habsburg became extinct after the death of Charles VI., and a European coalition was formed for the purpose of excluding his daughter Maria Theresa from the throne. The Elector of Bavaria, who claimed the Bohemian crown, entered the country with an army of Frenchmen and Bavarians, while a Saxon army also invaded Bohemia. These armies met before Prague, and carried the town by assault on November 26, 1741. The Elector of Bavaria immediately assumed the title of King of Bohemia, and was crowned in St. Vitus’s Cathedral by the Archbishop of Prague.

More than 400 knights and nobles did homage to the new King, and a German writer has noted, somewhat maliciously, that among them were representatives of many of the old Bohemian families, such as Cernin, Kolowrat, Kinsky, Lützow, Lazansky, Waldstein and many others.

The Elector left Bohemia immediately after his coronation, but a French army under Marshal Belleisle remained at Prague. The town was now besieged by the Austrian forces, and the French, after a brave defence, succeeded in evacuating the town and retreating safely to Eger, where they joined another French army that had been sent to their relief. Prague was now occupied by the troops of Maria Theresa, who was crowned there in 1743.

An event of great importance in the municipal annals of Prague took place during the reign of Maria Theresa. The communities of the old town, the new town and the ‘small quarter’ were united into one municipal corporation. This change had not, of course, the importance which it would have had in earlier and freer days; for the burgomaster was then a Government ofhcial, appointed by the authorities of Vienna. It is only since 1848 that the citizens of Prague have recovered the right of electing the head of their community.

The first years of the reign of Maria Theresa were very stormy
SECRET SEAL OF THE MALÁ STRANA ones for Prague.

In 1744 Frederick the Great entered Bohemia, and stormed Prague on September 12, after a terrible bombardment, during which 150 houses in the new town and a large part of the city walls were destroyed. Frederick did not remain long at Prague; the arrival of a large Austrian army under Charles of Lorraine obliged him to retire into Silesia.

Prague was not destined long to enjoy the blessings of peace. In 1757, the second year of the Seven Years’ War, Frederick the Great arrived before Prague with a large army on May 2 and encamped on the White Mountain. He crossed the Vltava on the sth to unite his army with the Prussian forces on the right bank of the river, and on the following day a great battle took place between the Prussians and Austrians between the village of Sterbohol, four and a half miles from Prague, and the city itself. Carlyle has given us a very spirited, though somewhat inaccurate, description of this great battle, which he calls ‘the famed Battle of Prag; which sounded through all the world—and used to deafen us in drawing-rooms within man’s memory.’ The battle ended with a complete defeat of the Imperialists, and the Austrian army had—as Carlyle words it—‘to roll pell-mell into Prague and hastily close the door behind it.’ The town was again so fiercely bombarded that whole streets were in ruins, and St. Vitus’s Cathedral and other historical buildings greatly suffered. The Austrian victory at Kolin obliged the Prussians to raise the siege of Prague.

The battle of 1757 is the last warlike event with which Prague is connected, if we except the civil tumult in 1848. The town played no part in the later events of the Seven Years’ War, nor in the long struggle between Austria and France that, with short intervals, lasted from 1792 to 1815.

In the peaceful years that followed the Congress of Vienna (1815) the Bohemian nation strove—as far as the jealousy of a strictly absolutist Government permitted—to recover some of its ancient rights and privileges, and particularly to revive the national language. Prague was the centre of this movement, particularly after the foundation of the Bohemian Museum.

A visitor to Prague who enters at all into communications with the inhabitants will hear so much of this movement that I do not think I should here pass it over altogether in silence. The Bohemian language that, during the period of independence, had gradually taken the place of Latin as the recognised language of the state, declined after the battle of the White Mountain. During the reign of Maria Theresa, and to a far greater extent during that of the Emperor Joseph II., the Austrian authorities used even more energy in their endeavours to substitute German in Bohemia for the native language than had been done immediately after the great defeat. Among other measures tending to this purpose, it was decreed that German should exclusively be used in the Bohemian schools. The stern determination—enemies, no doubt, would call it obstinacy—of the Bohemian nation defeated these attempts, though the native language was for a time almost relegated to the villages and outlying districts of Bohemia. The renascence of the national language in Bohemia, in the early years of the nineteenth century, is almost unique. It was, however, based on a great historic past, and thus differs greatly from the recent attempts to revive the Irish and Welsh languages, though the comparison has often been made. It is not my purpose to analyse here the tangled and involved causes which resulted in the great fact that a buried nationality burst its grave-clothes and reappeared radiant in the world. It may, however, be briefly noted that the Bohemian national movement was undoubtedly an offspring of the Romantic movement, the influence of which was felt all over Europe at the beginning of the last century. The revival of the Bohemian language is due to a small group of learned men, of whom Jungmann, Kolar, Safarik and Palacky were the most prominent. These men, few in number, showed that enthusiasm touching, though it may appear absurd to some, which champions of apparently hopeless causes often display. Many anecdotes to this purpose are still circulated in Prague. Thus it was said that a few of the ‘patriots,’ as the adherents of the national cause were called, feasted almost to excess as a token of joy when they noticed on the Graben ‘two well-dressed men who were talking Bohemian.’ On the other hand, they were deeply depressed when two young girls of the citizen class, who had been talking Bohemian, suddenly dropped into German on their approach, saying, ‘Take care they hear us talking Bohemian; they will take us for peasants.’

As was natural in the case of so musical a nation as Bohemia, the patriotic movement found expression in music also. Early in the nineteenth century ‘Slavic balls’ were instituted at Prague. At these balls the hall was entirely decorated in the Bohemian national colours (red and white), and conversation in Bohemian was alone allowed. It was the intention of the originators of these gatherings to send out the invitations in the Bohemian language, but the Austrian police officials, with the inquisitiveness characteristic of the Metternich period soon became acquainted with this intention, and raised objections. It was finally decided that the invitations should be both in German and in Bohemian. The old national songs were again sung as far as the police authorities permitted. New songs, celebrating the glory of Bohemia, also were composed. Such were the one beginning with the words ‘Já jsem Cech a kdo je vic?’ i.e., ‘I am a Bohemian, and who is more?’ that was composed by Rubes. Yet better known is the famed ‘Kde je domov muy?’ (Where is my country?) which the traveller will constantly hear at Prague, as the present Government, wiser than its predecessor, raises no objection to its being sung. The song has indeed become the national air of Bohemia. It was composed by Joseph Tyl (1808–1856), one of the best modern Bohemian dramatists, and by him introduced into one of his plays. When Mr. Kohl visited Prague in 1841 the song, which he curiously enough believed to be of ancient origin, was already sung everywhere in the city. He translated some lines of the song, and though his translation by no means does justice to the beauty of the original, I will transcribe it here, as giving the traveller some idea of the contents of a song to which he will hear constant allusions—

 

‘Where is my house? where is my home?
Streams among the meadows creeping,
Brooks from rock to rock are leaping,
Everywhere bloom spring and flowers
Within this paradise of ours;
There, ’tis there, the beauteous land!
Bohemia, my fatherland!
Where is my house? where is my home?
Knowst thou the country loved of God,
Where noble souls in well-shaped forms reside,
Where the free glance crushes the foeman’s pride?
There wilt thou find of Cechs, the honoured race,
Among the Cechs be aye my dwelling-place.’

 

The patriots themselves do not at first appear to have felt certain of the victory of the cause. Thus we are told that when Jungmann received the visit of two other patriots in his modest lodgings in the street which now bears his name, he said, in a fit of depression, ‘It needs only that the ceiling of this room should fall in, and there would be an end of Bohemian literature.’ He was, of course, alluding to the small number of the ‘patriots.’

In 1848 disturbances broke out at Prague. A Slavic Congress, comprising representatives of all branches of that race, met there under the presidency of Palacky, the great Bohemian statesman and historian, whose name has already been mentioned. Its deliberations were soon interrupted by the turbulence of the extreme nationalists. Stormy public meetings were held, and on June 12 Mass was read on the Václavské Námesti in the presence of a large crowd. Students returning from the service in the Celetná Ulice came into conflict with the soldiers, who fired on the people. Immediately numerous barricades were thrown up, and street-fighting continued up to the 17th, when the city surrendered unconditionally to Prince Windischgrätz, the Austrian commander. Absolutist and military government now again prevailed at Prague.

Since the year 1860 attempts were again made to establish representative institutions in Austria. The Bohemian diet again assembled, though no longer in the Hradcany Castle, but in a palace at the foot of that hill near the Malostranské Námesti.

In 1866, during the Austro-Prussian war, Prague was occupied by the Prussians without resistance on July 8. They remained there for some time, and here too (at the ‘Blue Star’ Hotel) the treaty that concluded the war was signed on August 23.

In the year 1871 it seemed probable that the Bohemians would obtain the restitution of their ancient constitution, of course modified to suit modern ideas, and Prague began to prepare for the coronation of the Sovereign. Unfortunately the negotiations between Count Hohenwart, then head of the Austrian Government, and the Bohemian leader, Prince George Lobkovic—whose great talents are far too little known beyond the Bohemian borders—failed at the last moment. Count Hohenwart’s cabinet was succeeded by ministers whose tendencies were German, and it is only since 1879 that concessions have been made to the Bohemians.

Since that time the Bohemian cause has made vast progress. The foundation of the Bohemian University, and of a Bohemian academy, which was richly endowed by the patriotic architect Hlarka, have greatly contributed to restore to Prague its former Bohemian character.

THE OLDEST GREAT SEAL OF THE OLD TOWN